Valentines special

Just come home for dinner and when leaving Joel he said, “I’m wasted but I have had a great day.” 13 visitors today (not counting his olds): some Tauranga Boys’ College mates, some Bethlehem College mates, some mates of mum and dad and another friend. Chocolates, card, poem, hugs, hand shakes, ice creams, pineapple and laughter all made for a great Valentines Day for our battler. The only official thing of the day, other than food intake, was his PTA test where he scored 10…at least he is being consistent.

So Valentines Day is a day to celebrate ‘love’… or ‘like’ for the more bashful. And while I went for my walk this morning I got to thinking about the people I love and like. Didn’t go down the track of the dislikes but hey none of you are in that category. I don’t want to be defined as the ‘father whose son had a nasty accident’ but more as a ‘father that loved his wife and kids.’ It is going through an event like Joel’s accident that you start to look at priorities and what really counts. It’s not stuff or money or position or fame or possessions; these are worth nothing. This life is about people and relationships. My mind wandered…as it does as you get older…and I thought how some have said how strong our faith has been through all this …but we are the same as you; it is just that God has allowed us to put our faith into action in an extreme context. We would never put our hands up to go through anything like this. And it has not been our faith alone but very much a partnership with all of you who have stood in faith with us and prayed for us and Joel. Well I continued to think of Valentines Day and love and romance and that sorta stuff and I started to think of God’s love for us and I reckon He is a Valentines fan. He gave us the ultimate gift out of His love for us… his son Jesus. I saw a gift being given today and it took two… one to give and one to receive. God has given us all a gift…as receivers what do we do with the gift?